From Gisele Bündchen to Rihanna—the best bridal looks at the 2023 Met Gala

3 May 2023

The entrance of a Chanel bride is immediately recognisable, and these were the starry picks from the gala evening that would have done Karl Lagerfeld's legacy proud

Karl Lagerfeld once joked “normally, I don’t recommend me for wedding dresses—they all get a divorce.” But at the Met Gala 2023 a long list of attendees wanted to have a moment as a Karl Lagerfeld bride (admittedly without any risk of a divorce), as the likes of Alexa Chung, Gisele Bündchen, Maya Hawke and Nicola Peltz Beckham were all inspired by his extensive bridal archive. The designer’s Chanel haute couture shows always ended with a bride and it was seen as a real honour to be selected to close the show—however, on Monday night, there was no cap on the number of Met Gala brides.

There is a long list of supermodels who have been selected in their time to be a Chanel bride, from Inès de La Fressange in the 1980s to Claudia Schiffer throughout the 1990s to Cara Delevingne and Kendall Jenner. Lagerfeld once even walked supermodel Kristen McMenamy down the aisle at her actual wedding to photographer Miles Aldridge in 1997, taking on the father of the bride role.

Karl Lagerfeld with Chanel brides in 1995. Getty

You name a bridal trend, and he covered it over his three-decades at the helm of Chanel, from directional trouser suits to playful minidresses to ruffled pink gowns. Many of the bridal references on the red carpet were very literal—Maya Hawke dressed in a floral embellished ivory cape with matching minidress, while Gisele Bündchen wore a feathered cape and a sequin gown from the 2007 collection. Elle Fanning even wore a flower crown with a bouquet of fresh daisies—the perfect bridal accessories to her ivory lace Vivienne Westwood gown.

Rihanna is often the last to walk the steps of the Met Gala, typically arriving fashionably late, and so it’s perhaps no surprise that she took on the role of the final couture bride of the night. The closing look of his Chanel couture shows was always a wedding dress and so it was fitting that Rihanna ended the red carpet proceedings in a custom Valentino gown with a huge train that swept down the steps and a cape covered in 30 giant camellia appliqués made of 500 petals.

Keep scrolling for the brides that did Karl Lagerfeld proud on the Met Gala 2023 red carpet.

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Rihanna in custom Valentino

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Gisele Bündchen in Chanel

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Elle Fanning in Vivienne Westwood

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Nicola Peltz Beckham in Valentino

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Halle Bailey

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Alexa Chung in Róisín Pierce

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Alton Mason

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Dua Lipa in vintage Chanel

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Maya Hawke in Prada

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Irina Shayk in Yohji Yamamoto

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Alia Bhatt in Prabal Gurung

This article was first published on Vogue.com.